Thursday, June 09, 2005

The Addiction

I am an addict. I join the ranks of George Best and Paul Gascoigne and hold up my hands and admit that I am thrall to a vice greater than my will power...

It all started simple enough. I tried a small one and tried to forget about it. But it gnawed away until I tried another and then another and before I knew it I was hunting down a supplier on the internet and now it’s no good. I’m doomed...

Basically sudoku is bloody addictive. For those not in the know sudoku is a Japanese numbers puzzle set out on a 9x9 grid made up three 3x3 grids. You are given a few numbers in their correct place to start off with and then you have to fill in the rest. But the catch is that each 3x3 box must have the numbers 1-9 while each column or row can only have one number 1-9 in it.

I’d dabbled with a few sudoku and made a total arse of them over the past few days as The Guardian and The Evening Standard are printing them on their respective puzzles pages. But last night enough was enough and, after making another hashed effort, I made it back home and went to my office and hand drew the grid and placed the original numbers in and spent the entire evening getting the bloody, sodding, b***!!ding thing right.

About 11.30pm I thought I had it cracked. Then I realised I’d repeated two numbers in the same column. Arse biscuits! It was the gone-to-bed-with-Anne-Bancroft-and-woken-up-with-Anne-Widdecombe feeling multiplied by about 20.

So to prove my superiority over some pesky bit of paper with a few numbers I have now completed four of these sodding things and I will doubtless do more until I get bored or remember that I do have a life.

Pity me...

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